Category: Monday’s Pretty Things

Every Christmas tree doesn’t have to be a big, Costco-sized production. Here are some lovely ideas to use small, table-top trees — or even the extra branches you might have leftover after trimming to fit into the tree stand!

I haven’t done a Monday’s Pretty Things round-up in a while. In fact, if you’re a new reader you might not even know that Monday’s Pretty Things are, well, a thing! That’s just sad. I’ve been collecting plenty of inspiration, I just haven’t been sharing it. (I’m sorry. Let’s end that drought now.)

Images from the former Yugoslavia, or anywhere throughout the Balkans, Eastern/Central Europe and the former Soviet states fascinate me. There’s a sadness about so many of them, and yet such a poignant beauty. Like I wrote here, “it makes me very happy and it makes me very sad.” If you have any seemingly-everyday snapshots from those areas, favorite blogs or Instagram accounts, photojournals (like RFE/RL’s Picture This!) or anything else related. send them my way! They don’t all have to be epic — like these images of Communist-era buildings — I love a good peek into everyday life, too.

If you follow Oaxcaborn on Instagram, you know about our succulent planting adventures (see below photo) so it’s no surprise that this week’s Monday’s Pretty Things is all about greenery! This was inspired by a couple of things — one, the incredible Urban Jungle Bloggers project, and two, the fascinating conversation here about the challenge of spending time outdoors if you, like many people, are an apartment dweller. (Most people don’t actually live on a rambling ranch!)

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I'm Gina Munsey, a Jesus-lover and a sojourner; a weaver of words, anchored in hope. I am Mexico-born, Eastern Europe-raised missionary kid who ended up being a Californian in Franklin/Nashville, Tennessee. I live my days full of coffee and adventures while my 8-year-old learns Mandarin Chinese and my artist-husband creates worlds from pixels and light. I'm an editor, a magazine contributor, and a writer who has only completed four chapters of my languishing manuscript. On any given day, you can find me in the middle of [home]school surrounded by stacks and stacks of books. Oh, and the name of this blog? Oaxaca -- wuh-HA-kuh -- is in Southern Mexico, where I was born! (See full bio).

The Oaxacaborn Blog: Rhythms of Classical Gifted Homeschooling

Gina Munsey's blog about homeschooling a gifted only child, work as worship, and how second-generation homeschoolers have shifted home education culture and theology. "Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death." -Anaïs Nin